You cannot recover what you never knew you had

The data loss experience from last month is not going away. Every few days it gives me something more to think about.

Going through what had been recovered, I realized I was not sure what was still missing. I knew the recovery was incomplete, but because I had never kept a full inventory of what existed, I had no clue what was lost. Only when i need something, will i know if it is missing.

What did you carry in childhood that shaped you, that you never named? What did a friendship give you that you only noticed when it was gone, and even then, only partially? What values were alive in you at a certain point in life that have quietly eroded, unnoticed, because you were not keeping inventory?

The loss of what we never catalogued is the most complete loss. It leaves no search terms, no recovery path, only the occasional sense that something that used to be there isn't anymore, and not being able to say exactly what.

This is where the unknown unknown becomes personal. We talk about it in the context of strategy and risk, the consequence that arrives from a direction you weren't watching. But the most consequential unknown unknowns may not be out there in the environment. They may be inside - capacities, qualities, ways of being that were present and valuable and quietly lost before anyone thought to name them.

Can you name what matters, lest it is lost ?